Entertainment

Mark Zuckerberg Worth $21 Billion on Facebook IPO Debut

In less than an hour, Mark Zuckerberg has jumped from number 29 to number 24 — and then back to 29 — on the list of wealthiest people in the world.

Facebook set an opening share price of $38 on Thursday evening, which valued Zuckerberg's 503.6 million shares and options at about $19.1 billion. Trading opened on Friday at about $42.

That price would make Zuckerberg's portion of the company worth $21.2 billion.

The 28-year-old CEO would be not only more wealthy than Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, but also creeping into the territory of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who holds the number 23 spot.

Shares dipped back to $38 almost immediately after the stock opened and will likely fluctuate — along with Zuckerberg's net worth — throughout the day. The Wall Street Journal has set up a real-time "Wealth-o-Meter" for those interested in following along.

Zuckerberg had planned to sell 30.2 million of his shares in the IPO, which would net him $1.3 billion at Friday's opening trading price. According to Facebook's filing with the SEC, he will use most of the proceeds to pay taxes associated with exercising 60 million stock options.

10 Things Facebook Should Spend Its IPO Money On

1. Mobile

Mobile isn't just the future for Facebook — it's the present, with many studies showing Facebook leads all other social apps by far. However, the Facebook experience on smartphones and tablets is lacking. The service's iPad app doesn't even include Timeline, and the Android app doesn't scale well for tablets. Facebook clearly needs to build out its mobile platform, adding both functionality and marrying the experience better with every smartphone it has a presence on. That, and start monetizing it.

2. Advertising Platform

Online advertising is huge and growing, with Facebook at the forefront. However, it hasn't done anything quite as innovative as its chief rival, Google, in the space. Post-IPO, Facebook will be in a better position to steer where online advertising is going rather than vice versa. Despite Facebook's ubiquity, its ads still provide a mediocre experience (compared to, say, Apple's iAd) and they're a non-presence in mobile. Facebook needs to invest heavily, and carefully, in expanding its ad platform, or it'll never satisfy investors.

3. Search Engine

Google encroached on Facebook's territory earlier this year when it integrated social networks into search results. It's only fair for Facebook to strike back by offering a search engine. Besides the satisfaction of retaliating against its greatest rival, Facebook would be able to boost engagement by keeping users on the site when they need to search the web. However, building any kind of meaningful search engine costs a lot of money (as Microsoft has discovered) — less of a problem when you're a public company.

4. Acquisitions

When Facebook acquired Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg said it wouldn't be the last big-name acquisition for the social network. It was also an indication that he was aware that smaller, more nimble companies were beginning to define the web and mobile. It would cost a great deal of cash, but Facebook may have its eye on the likes of Pinterest, Viddy or Path. While the best way to predict the future is to invent it, if someone has already done that, you can always just buy them.

5. Facebook Phone

Facebook has had its share of issues developing mobile apps, but it would be much easier to create a great mobile experience if Facebook controlled the hardware from the get-go. Then it could easily integrate features like face recognition and auto-tagging of photos, similar to abilities in the Samsung Galaxy S III. While the so-called "Facebook phones" released so far have been underwhelming, that's probably because the phones themselves have been poor, not necessarily the idea itself.

6. Ecommerce Platform

Facebook has experimented with ecommerce features in the past and ended up learning a lot about its users' concerns about privacy. Still, many third-party services (such as Payvment) have attached their services to Facebook to add a social aspect to shopping, which is almost inherent (friends and family are huge influencers in what we buy). Putting greater focus on ecommerce is almost a no-brainer for the social network, but in this case, an acquisition may be the best course.

7. Business Analytics

Right now, the effectiveness of Facebook brand pages and ads is a bit of a guessing game, with many turning to third-party tools (like PageLever or Social Fresh) to see how their Facebook audience is responding. Facebook is already tracking its users' each and every move, but it needs to tackle the Big Data problem of aggregation and presenting insights to companies in a meaningful way. With comprehensive — and actionable — analytics, maybe GM wouldn't have pulled its $10 million ad buy earlier this week.

8. Social Media Education

Facebook began as a way for students to connect with each other online, and many educators and schools have since adopted it as a way to better reach students. Why not make it official? Facebook could provide schools a standard way to offer classes right on its platform. It would require a highly customizable experience, tailored to each institution's needs, along with a support network, but if it leads to better student engagement, schools might be willing to get on board... and pay for the privilege.

9. Research and Development

To really stay ahead of the competition, Facebook can't just look to hot trends and big acquisitions. It needs to project 5, 10, even 20 years out to predict the habits and desires of consumers — and the technologies that they'll need to build meaningful relationships. How will the company confront Big Data, for instance, and how will it integrate its databases (which currently depend on older MySQL technology) into future frameworks? It had better start working on that now, in a big way.

10. Break Through in China

China is the last great frontier for Facebook (until there's a Mars colony, anyway). It's officially blocked in the country, leaving a billion potential new users out in the cold. It'll also be the most difficult to nut to crack, since doing business there means dealing with the Chinese government. As Google has discovered, the compromises an information-based company must make in China get morally murky very quickly. Could Facebook handle the situation any better? Given enough attention — and money — anything's possible.

Mashable
is a global, multi-platform media and entertainment company. Powered by its own proprietary technology, Mashable is the go-to source for tech, digital culture and entertainment content for its dedicated and influential audience around the globe.